EVENTS

NSA caught spying on Mexico and France

Germany’s Der Spiegelreports (in an article co-authored by Laura Poitras) that the NSA spied on the communications between members of the administration of Mexico’s president.

The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years. It hacked into the president’s public email account and gained deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.
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According to the NSA, this email domain was also used by cabinet members, and contained “diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico’s political system and internal stability.” The president’s office, the NSA reported, was now “a lucrative source.”

Needless to say, this latest revelation from Edward Snowden’s documents has infuriated Mexico’s president, just as the earlier revelations about spying on Brazil’s leaders. People do not seem to realize that the Latin American countries are now major players in the international arena and are in no mood to be treated so rudely by the US.

Mexico’s government said Sunday it “categorically condemns” email spying, after a German news magazine reported that documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden say the U.S. gained access to the email system of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

A report posted by Der Spiegel said the documents describe an operation dubbed “Flat liquid” that claim to have accessed Mexico’s “presidencia” domain, which was also purportedly used by members of Calderon’s Cabinet.

“This practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and contrary to Mexican law and international law,” Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.

How quaint. The Mexicans think that the US government and president Obama actually care about international law.

Meanwhile the French newspaper Le Monde is the latest major news outlet to become part of the Snowden distribution network and today in a story co-written by Glenn Greenwald, they report that the NSA carried out extensive spying on the French. Needless to say, they are not happy about this either.

The French government summoned the U.S. ambassador for an explanation on Monday and renewed demands for talks on protection of personal data, as well as pledges that the surveillance would cease.
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“This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a meeting in Luxembourg with his European counterparts.

Mind you, the US is spying on countries that are supposed to be its allies.

The US is like that creepy ‘friend’ who snoops through your private things when you are not looking.

It will be interesting to see the reaction when* it’s revealed that the NSA has been spying on the government and civilians of Israel. There is a portion of the US public who seem to be more defensive of the interests of that country than of their own.

I’m particularly looking forward to hearing from a certain regular commenter here as I can’t currently recall his response to the original revelations about the extent of the data collection targeted at US citizens.

Considering the Jonathan Pollard case, I’d say that Israel and the US are so far into each others’ pockets that the NSA probably knows what the head of Mossad had for breakfast last Sunday, and vice versa. But that’s a somewhat unusual case.

This is getting to be like Green Eggs and Ham, with its endless iterations of minor variations. It is boring, redundant, and, profoundly incomplete.

Why not just state the facts as we know them outright: The NSA, et al, is spying/collecting and logging every stinking last scrap of information it can get its hands on. Essentially, if it is digital, or analog, scanned or interacting with a digital system (Letters and the addresses on them are routinely scanned and logged if even if not actually read.) it is being monitored ,or copied outright and stored for later examination. Everything, everywhere, at all times, and looking forward, forever.

The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years. It hacked into the president’s public email account and gained deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.